How AI-Based Security is a Game Changer for SMBs

If you're a cybersecurity practitioner for an SMB, you know the drill. You're often a one-person army, juggling everything from hand-wringing desktop support to updating firewalls, onboarding new employees, and dealing with the aftermath of a DDOS attack. Your days are filled with navigating MSP portals for support tickets and sifting through quarantined messages in M365 or GWS, not to mention the false alarms from well-meaning employees. It's a constant battle to do more with less.

Email security, a critical aspect of your daily routine, involves more than just managing settings and reviewing quarantined messages. It's about distinguishing real threats from false positives–a task that's easier said than done. The promises of AI in revolutionizing cybersecurity are abundant, but when it comes to email security, AI isn't just a promise; it's a practical, game-changing tool.

Demystifying AI in Cybersecurity

Forget the buzzwords; AI in cybersecurity is here, and it's making a significant impact, especially in email security. AI and machine learning are no longer exclusive to large corporations. They're becoming indispensable for SMBs grappling with sophisticated cyber threats. 

At its core, AI is about machines learning from experience and making adjustments, similar to how humans learn. In the context of email security, this means an AI system can analyze vast amounts of data—millions of emails—and learn to distinguish between harmless messages and potential threats. It's not just about filtering spam and catching basic phishing attacks; it's about identifying those cleverly disguised email attacks that traditional secure email gateways (increasingly) miss. If designed properly, your AI email security should become smarter over time, always adapting to new tactics used by cybercriminals.

The Osterman Research on The Role of AI in Email Security highlights a growing trend: organizations are increasingly integrating AI into their email security solutions. This shift is crucial as cybercriminals leverage Gen AI to craft highly personalized, targeted, and convincing email attacks. Traditional security measures are often insufficient against these sophisticated threats, making AI an essential tool in the cybersecurity arsenal.

Let’s talk about costs.

One of the most significant benefits of AI-based security is its cost-effectiveness. Traditional security tools (ahem…SEGs) are still really expensive, and their daily management requirements are resource intensive. This is true for the SEG-like functions found in Microsoft Defender and Google Workspace as well.

In contrast, AI-based email security solutions are much more affordable (or they should be). They integrate via API, so deployment only takes a few minutes (and won’t take your email offline), they automate just about everything from stopping email attacks to reviewing and remediating emails reported by your good-intentioned employees.

This isn’t just hype, there is compelling proof of this among the 10,000 plus IRONSCALES customers who spend an average of 5.9 minutes a day reviewing email incidents (95% of which are harmless emails escalated by employees). For SMBs, this translates to solving one (leading) threat vector without spending more money or adding headcount.

And you don’t have to go shopping every two years.

Most security leaders are forced to refresh or update their email security every few years because their current solutions start falling behind. An AI-based solution that is adaptive puts an end to this frustrating and expensive cycle. How? If it is properly designed to continuously learn and incorporate human insights from real-world, never-seen-before attacks, it simply won’t fall behind. This isn’t true with solutions that rely on traditional “static AI” models. Adaptive AI’s ability to learn and adapt ensures that your cybersecurity measures remain effective against evolving attacks and fortifying your defenses for the future.

AI-based security solutions represent a new era in cybersecurity for SMBs. They offer a blend of efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and advanced threat detection that traditional methods simply can't match. For the overburdened and frustrated IT professional in an SMB, AI-based email security isn't just a helpful tool; it's a game changer that brings peace of mind and allows you to focus on driving your business forward.

Want to find out how AI can solve your phishing problems AND save you time and money? Contact us for a live demo!